Leandro had started counting down days from the day he heard the news in January about Remma's coming. He couldn't really satisfy his own question why, but he knew something more intense and more important than that had lived and occupied a place deep inside him. He began to think of her more often than he usually did, and couldn't help but wonder how much had changed in her looks. He hadn't receive any more pictures from her since his sixth grade, and he hadn't received any response yet to his letter that he had sent in the second week of January. He was anxious and thrilled to see her, but today was already the eight day of May and still no word or news of her. Her grandma, Lola Dorya, didn't know either what date they would arrive. But Lola Dorya had long since prepared herself and the house for Remma and her parents.

The Friday late afternoon was cloudy and shady, and the sea breeze swept the shore with mild, cool air. After their eleven-hour stay at the sea fishing, they finally decided to go home. They had already collected their catch and put them in the big white styropore filled with ice, and they were now rowing their way back to the shore.

"So when are you planning to go to Manila?" Donald, who seated at the other end of the boat behind him, asked.

"I was advised to be there by the end week of this month," he answered. His hands on the oar, still rowing. "But I asked them if I could stay here for the fiesta and go there first day of June instead. They said OK."

"Well, at least we could still play basketball or go fishing for two more days after the fiesta," Donald said.

He took a deep breath. "Yeah," he agreed. "Or be with Remma for two more days."

"Uh-huh."

A pause.

"I'm gonna miss you, you know."

Leandro looked straight away toward the shore. He stopped rowing. "Same here."

Donald stopped rowing, too, and looked away blankly to his far right. "So, I guess we're finally parting ways, huh?"

Leandro sensed something funny and chuckled for a short period.

"I'm serious."

Silence.

"This has to be, right?" Donald went on.

After a while, Leandro spoke. "Do you still remember that day when Remma told us she's leaving?"

"Who can ever forget that?"

"And I said we have to part ways and walk our own lives?"

Donald went silent. A moment after he sighed, he continued rowing. "So it's happening now."

"But I still keep the promise," he said, and then turned his head toward his friend. "You?"

Donald did not respond, but after a while he nodded.

When they reached the shore Leandro put his oar aside, jumped off the boat and into the knee-deep seawater. Donald followed and helped him push the outrigger boat into the shore.

"I have heard about this thing called the Internet," Leandro said as they pushed the boat. "Is it also covered by the course you choose?"

"Yep," Donald quickly replied. "I asked the Dean last April when I was enrolling in, and she said Web Designing and Programming will be covered. Computer Science is broad. Said it's a new entry to the curricula."

"Cool. Never seen what Internet is like, though. No idea," he said. A pause. "You've already found a boardinghouse in Cebu?"

"A dorm, yes."

Leandro straightened up as he went to unload the styropore. Donald went to get the oars. At that very moment, with their backs facing the seaside road, they heard a woman's voice behind them. Donald turned around to see who it was. Then he froze. When Leandro noticed that his friend was not moving, he looked up and saw his friend staring at the woman, transfixed. He darted his gaze to the woman and he, too, froze.

"Hello guys," Remma flashed the smile they'd last seen six years ago. The very smile they could never forget.

She was almost totally different now. So much had changed in her looks. Her hair was long and was smoothly swaying against the breeze. She was taller than they had expected, and her skin was white and rosy. Though her eyes were the same, something in her told them that time had molded her so beautifully. She was no longer a girl; she's already a woman.

"Mind if I hop in?"

They had just docked the boat and was about to leave, but none of them could refuse.

"Sure," Leandro heard himself said. He freed himself from the styropore and offered his hand to her as she took off her sandals and waded her way to the boat.

After Donald went to the boat to load back the oars, he turned around and commented, "You look so different now."

"Negatively?" she asked, smiling.

"You're stunning," Leandro said.

"Oh!" Remma almost lost her balance as she pulled up her right foot from the water and into the boat. Donald and Leandro went to catch her.



"It's Friday. I went to the park before I came here," Remma began when they had finally went off to sea with Donald and Leandro sitting at both ends of the boat, while she sat sideway between them. "I thought you were there." Her voice and face showed no emotion of any kind.

"Well, we are fishing today," Donald explained.

Remma seemed dissatisfied with his answer. She continued, "What happened to the park?"

Donald and Leandro were confused. "Why, what about it?" Leandro asked.

"It's so different from before. It seems --- deserted."

Donald silently glanced at Leandro.

"We still go there once in a while," Leandro reasoned. "But since I voluntarily took over some of the responsibilities of my father, I do the fishing every weekend and every summer."

"And I volunteered to help him do the job," Donald quickly added. "And it turned out to be more fun than I thought it would be."

"Your parents, they're not against it?" she asked Donald.

"No, not at all. As usual, they see the positive side of everything than otherwise."

An awkward silence wrapped them for a while.

"Can we go to the park, the three of us?" she asked to no one in particular.

"Sure," the two replied in unison.

Remma poked her fingers to the seawater as the boat rowed away toward the center of the bay. Ripples and small waves trailed behind her fingers. "What else happened while I'm gone?"

Donald rested the oar on his side as he answered, "Leandro and I still went to school on the same section. We played basketball alot, won some tournaments at school and outside."

"He plays soccer, too," Leandro added.

"Really?" Remma asked interestingly. "I thought you're scared of soccer."

Donald shook his head and grinned. "Not anymore."

Remma retrieved her fingers from the water and straightened up. She turned her head toward Leandro. "What about you, Lean?"

Before he could answer, he heard Donald spoke.

"He graduated valedictorian from grade school," Donald answered. "And from high school, too."

Remma's eyes beamed. "You're amazing!"

Leandro, all of a sudden, smiled shyly. He was aware of it, but was already too late to stop himself. Before he could make a statement, Donald went on.

"Last year he got a scholarship, full scholarship," Donald dramatically paused. "Guess where?"

Remma turned her head from Leandro to Donald and back. "Where?"

"University of the Philippines. In Diliman."

Remma gasped in disbelief. "UP Diliman? Wow!"

"Last April he went to Quezon City to enroll."

"What major?"

"Astronomy," Leandro said.

"Astronomy," Remma repeated with a smile as she nodded. "So you really are now up into living your dreams. I'm so proud of you."

Hearing her said that, Leandro felt happy like never before.

Moments later, Remma stared at the oar that Donald was holding as he was rowing and maneuvering the boat. She sat there watching him, mesmerized.

"Teach me," Remma said.

"Huh?" Donald asked, confused.

"Teach me how to do that."

Leandro watched in amusement as she tried hard to keep the boat moving. When the boat drastically changed course and back, she screamed and laughed and clapped. They were all laughing. As they maneuvered the boat back to the shore, he couldn't help himself from looking silently at Remma.

The wind played with Remma's hair, which swayed and cascaded toward her right. Leandro looked at her squinting her eyes as she scanned the vastness of the sea and the mangroves not far from them. Not far from where they were she could see the park a few meters above the shore. She could clearly see the unfinished lighthouse, and the benches below it.

"Look," she pointed toward the park.

Donald and Leandro turned their heads toward where her finger was pointing.

"It looks so different from here," she uttered.

"It's bushy," Leandro commented.

"It's beautiful," Remma praised.



Friday late afternoon the next week. They didn't go fishing. He had told his tatay the day before that he would be at the park with Remma and Donald, and would skip going to the sea just for one day. Now, as he was hurriedly walking toward the end of the barrio, he saw Leah in the distance walking toward him.

"Hi, Leandro," Leah smiled when she was near.

Leandro smiled back. "Where you goin'?"

"I'm actually going to your house," she said. "I'm looking for your mother."

"She's at home when I left. She was about to go to the town, though. But you may still catch her," Leandro said as he looked past her into the far end of the road, which intersected with that of the park's.

"Oh, yeah. I better be hurry," she said with a trace of urgency. She started walking again but after a few steps she stopped, turned around, and called him.

He turned around. "Yep?"

"Next week I'll be leaving for Cebu," she said. "I just want to say goodbye."

Leandro thought about it for a while. "You won't be coming back for the fiesta?"

She shook her head. "After enrolling I'll find a part-time job. Tourism is expensive, you know, for me. But it's what I want."

"That's good," he said. "I'll be working part-time, too."

"Yeah, I've heard," she smiled. "So you're leaving first day of June?"

He didn't had the chance to wonder how she knew about it for he was too busy to free himself from the conversation so he could go to the park on time.

"I've heard she's back," Leah casually said.

"Huh?" He didn't quite get who she was referring to, but after a short while he did. "Oh, yeah. Friday last week."

"You seemed so happy."





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